


Joining the Big Leagues

by theoneandonlybunny



Category: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Pretty Decent Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoneandonlybunny/pseuds/theoneandonlybunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Peter was asked to join the Avengers at the beginning of his superhero career? What if he started when he was only 15? How much would it cost him -- and how would the other Avengers react?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Peter walked through the Helicarrier, chest puffed out, standing as taller as he could manage. It was awkward as hell and he was sure that the others who were watching could tell he was trying to make himself look bigger, but he couldn’t help it – it wasn’t every day that he was ‘invited’ onto a giant floating fortress in the sky. He was in full superhero gear, and of all the various scenarios he’d thought up when he decided to start being a hero, this had not been one of them.

A small voice reminded him of the Biology homework due tomorrow morning in 3rd period. He ignored it. This was infinitely more important than a lousy 20 points, and he’d be able to get his work done by 2nd period if they continued watching the documentary.

He was also sure that bringing up the need to get home soon would be a mistake. Or just talking in general right now. The tall, one-eyed, swooshy-leather trenchcoat wearing Director of SHIELD did not look like a man who would appreciate the quips Peter had just recently begun bouncing off of those he’d beaten.

Peter had been ‘recruited’ to join the Avengers. Rather, he’d been ‘asked’, and when the consequences of his not joining and the fact that he was likely surrounded by people with high-powered guns in various vantage points mixed in with the fact that he desperately needed money to help support his Aunt, when he was ‘asked’ again, he’d said yes.

He was pulled into a room where he was (once again) checked for any sort of recording device or tracking bug. It had scared the crap out of him when the alarm had sounded and they’d taken and scanned his cell phone at the gate and kept it until he was ready to leave. This time, though, Peter was declared clean, and the next room he was lead into held an all-star cast of heroes. The ‘main’ Avengers, minus Thor. Where was Thor? Off-realm?

Captain America.

Tony Stark, aka Iron Man.

The Hulk, currently in the non-green and destructive form of Dr. Banner.

The Black Widow.

Hawkeye.

Peter had been operating as Spider-Man for a few months, but none of them seemed surprised when he’d walked in. He got the impression that he was being sized up, but all of the false bravado that had been with him through the halls had left him, and now it was taking most of his power to not pee himself right there. Especially as he felt all of their gazes settling on him in different ways.

“Everyone, meet Spider-Man. Spider-Man… you know their names.”

“H-hi.”

Really? Of all the times in the universe for his voice to crack, it had to choose then?

It got a snigger out of Hawkeye, and a sympathetic look from Captain America. Iron Man simply looked up from a panel of his suit he was tinkering with.

“Kid, you can de-mask in here. No one’s gonna rat out your identity to the press.”

Peter would have preferred to keep it on, but he received encouraging looks from a couple others, and so at the ‘suggestion’ he found the bottom of the material and pulled it up over his head, noting how everyone was in some way paying attention.

“Really? Are we running an elementary school here? I mean, I never would have figured you for a cradle robber, Fury.”

Peter’s face fell at Iron Man’s comments, and only continued at the rest of the room’s opinions.

“Never thought I’d say this, but Stark’s right. Doesn’t look like he can even shave yet.”

Hawkeye was right. Peter couldn’t.

“No. I refuse.”

Well, at least Black Widow hadn’t killed his ego any more.

“Are we sure that he isn’t one of Xavier’s? He looks around the right age.”

Peter wasn’t actually sure about where he qualified anymore, but as his powers had come from a spider-bite, not puberty, he was sticking with a ‘no’ on that issue. If anyone bothered to ask him. Since he was still in the room and all.

It was Captain America who surprised him.

“How old are you, son?”

“15.”

There was a sharp intake of breath – whoops, had he forgotten to mention he was legally a minor? – and the Director looked a little stormy. Captain America seemed to be deep in thought.

“Kids ran away to join the Army that young during the War.”

“Yeah well Capsicle, times have changed. Gotta be at least 17 now. Christ, kid, go home, tell your mommy and your daddy you love them, and hang up the suit for a few years. Or forever. Your choice.”

“Stark.”

“Director, I have to agree with him on this. He’s way too young.”

“Noted, Romanov, but you don’t get a say in this. He’s on the team. You guys need him.”

Banner spoke up. “What can he do that we can’t? No offense, but…”

“He’s your eyes on the street. He can fight both ranged and close up, with training, and unlike some of you, he can actually end a fight with his opponent still in one piece!”

Hawkeye and the Black Widow both rolled their eyes at that. Like it was their fault the target had a couple of broken bones... and internal bleeding... and a broken jaw. He was the idiot who’d tried to jump over roofs and had fallen when he didn’t jump far enough.

“If this is about payback, Director, leave the kid alone. You scared him enough for one night.”

Peter found his voice, but his voice was high and childish and stringy. “I’m not scared!”

“That’s cute squirt, real cute. Now try pulling the other one.”

Peter ignored Hawkeye. “I – I took on the Lizard alone! ”

The genius snorted. “Kid, don’t start that. I guarantee, we’ve got you beat inside a day’s work.”

“My name’s Peter!”

He was actually starting to get mad. He didn’t see the others take note of how his body language changed, or of the Director’s expression as Peter started talking back to some of the people he looked up to the most. Tony Stark was his technical hero. He invented cool stuff, and Peter wanted to do that someday. Bruce Banner was his science hero. His work was still the defining edge in gamma radiation. He didn’t know Hawkeye or Black Widow’s exploits well, but they’d helped save the world in the Battle of New York just like the rest of the team. He couldn’t stand up to the Cap, but somehow he didn’t feel like he needed to. The man still looked deep in thought.

“He’s an Avenger. Do I make myself clear?”

No one looked quite happy with it.

“Dismissed.”

Peter stood there as the others walked out, feeling two feet tall and utterly pathetic. He suddenly felt a hand on his thin shoulder, and he jumped.

Captain America.

“Peter, was it? Welcome to the team. They’ll uh – they’ll come around in time.”

Peter honestly hoped they would.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team talks it out among themselves.

The rest of the team met up later in the ‘Avengers Tower’, as it had been called, and sat around the living room when Fury had taken Peter to go through the recruitment process of being an Avenger and all the paperwork that entailed. There’d be even more for Peter, as he wasn’t yet 18, and child labor laws kicked in, even though there was no possible way the lawmakers could have foreseen this particular scenario. Black Widow and Hawkeye were both Agents, and thus their compensation was added to their normal paychecks. The Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man were all paid consultants. As for Thor, his paycheck was the protection and support of a Dr. Jane Foster and a Dr. Erik Selvig. There wasn’t much else that he wanted – an upside to being an alien prince.

“I don’t like it. He’s too damn young.”

Clint’s temper was flaring. Maybe the kid had powers, but throwing him at the line of fire was wrong, no matter how it was sliced. 15 was no age to be worried about alien invasions.

“Did you see Fury’s reaction? That was the first time he’d seen under the mask as well. I don’t think he knew.” Bruce's voice was quiet and calm, but he was massaging his temples.

A sound of disbelief came from Tony. “Not possible. Snakes on the Plane knows everything.”

That was just another reference Steve hadn’t understood, but he was getting used to that, and learning quickly. After the last time they’d been assembled on very short notice, the group of misfits and oddballs had taken up semi-permanent residence in the Tower, and they were still roughing out the group dynamics. He shared Dr. Banner’s opinion, though – Fury had been expecting someone older.

Steve wasn’t the only one not talking. Natasha felt the innocence rolling off the new addition, and it was almost sickening. Boys did not belong in the world they fought in; they might not have been trained for monsters and magic but this child had never even been trained. The first time out, they would likely lose him, and she was already resigned to his death. There was no purpose in thinking anything else without extensive evidence to the contrary, and even then they were all one bad mission away from a pine box anyway.  
Their work was too important to add ‘babysitting’ to their list of chores. The kid – ‘Peter’ – would have to watch his own back.

“Fury had to have more reasons than he told us. It’s not like he doesn’t know just how close we came that first time out, and he wouldn’t put Peter on the roster if he didn’t have anything to offer. Let’s give him a chance.”

Tony stared at Steve. “Are you kidding me? He’s a goddamn kid – he’s 15. He can’t legally drive a car on his own yet. Might not even want this for himself.”

“He stood up to us. All of us. That takes something.”

“Yeah, bravado. Teenage guys have it in spades, they just usually use it to fight each other or get in girls’ pants. Kid’s probably never even seen the inside of a girl’s mouth. Why are we still considering this?”

Tony grabbed a snack from somewhere, and spread his hands as if he’d already won the argument. The thing Steve hated was that Tony wasn’t wrong.

“Because it’s not up to us if he’s a hero or not, or if he joins the team. He’s already here. Are we gonna make it easier for him, or are we gonna make it harder?”

Clint got up from where he was sitting. He’d watched the fireworks long enough; he had other stuff he needed to do today. “Ain’t all on us, Captain. Kid’s got a part in this too. Can’t promise anything until I know he’s not gonna get in my way.”

Natasha went with him. Her thoughts hadn’t changed very much. They’d lost good people, extremely well-trained people, in the Attack on New York. The monsters they fought wouldn’t treat him any kinder because he was a child, and the men that made the monsters look tame would take his blank slate and dip it in red, no matter how heroic the kid might be.

That thought upset her, but she buried it, like most other things that actually got to her, under a well-polished emotional guard, to be mentioned only in private, to the last man she actually trusted. Clint. They would have a discussion about it later, after all the other group members had gone off to do their own thing.

Bruce hung back. He agreed more with Tony than Steve; it felt like the kid had been strongarmed into being part of something way bigger than he should have been. There would have been problems even if the kid was 18 and in college, but then the kid would have been able to decide for himself. He’d be mostly through puberty. Kids changed in high school, and they got closer to the people they’d be for the rest of their lives. Spider-Man –Peter – hadn’t even had a chance yet to do that. Coulson’s sacrifice had meant that a difficult group of people had begun to gel. Was Peter a person who could work with the group? And even if he was, was the group able to accept another person?

Only time would tell.

Tony wasn’t quite done. He glared at Steve. “I’m not working with him.”

Steve sighed, and ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s not Peter’s fault.”

“Still not working with him.”

Hopefully Steve hadn’t told Peter a lie. Hopefully, the team would all come around in time. That possibility was looking less and less likely, though, and Steve knew that Peter would pick up on it the next time he was in the same room with his new teammates.

There wasn’t any way that he couldn’t.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter goes out with the Avengers on his first assignment on the team, and discovers that the enemy is one he already knew.

Peter did actually manage to get home in time to slip in before Aunt May got really worried (as in, before 11), and he had just enough awareness to get his homework done. The people had been very thorough in the sheer amount of paperwork they’d needed him to see and sign that moment, and there was more the next time they saw him. Which was likely tomorrow. He was still overwhelmed by the day’s events, and he knew that Aunt May could tell. She offered hot chocolate. That made him smile (he still teased Gwen about that occasionally), and he waved it off, choosing instead to actually go to bed at a reasonable time for once.

So he had a reasonable amount of energy when SHIELD heard that Doc Ock was messing with radioactive materials again.

Fury didn’t call him until after school was out, which definitely was a good thing, but something he also felt was intentional -- which was a little creepy to think about, but fortunately, there wasn't much time to be pausing on things like that when he was swinging through skyscrapers to get to the rendezvous point. He'd ditched his clothes and school backpack on a rooftop, behind a security shed of an abandoned building, and he'd go back for it later. Right now, he was swinging to SHIELD HQ.

Iron Man's slightly digitized voice rang out.

"So, the schoolboy shows up."

Peter cringed, glad that his mask covered all of his face. The rest of his body language screamed his discomfort to the rest of the team. Inside the suit, Tony rolled his eyes. If the kid couldn't take what was from him very gentle ribbing, there was no _way_ he'd stick around.

"So, uh, what do we know?"

"Actually, Spider-Man, I was hoping you could tell us."

Nick Fury's voice sounded on the com-set Peter had been given just before he left the building the night before. Peter's features shifted to being confused, head slightly cocked in the direction of the ear the earpiece was in.

"Uh, sir, maybe I heard you wrong?"

"Nope. You have the most practical experience with this guy. What's he like? What's his general MO? What do we need to be on the watch for going in?"

"Uhhh... well, his giant metal arms are a pain to dodge, and getting hit by one of them hurts like hell."

Hawkeye rolled his eyes.

"He's super smart, if pretty crazy. Genius in the nuclear physics department. Kinda soft physically, but the giant swinging metal arms make up for that."

That got Tony's attention. "Doc Ock -- wait, Otto Octavius?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Consulted for me a couple of times. Go on."

Fury cleared his throat in the way that told everyone that he wanted everyone back on task yesterday. "Still haven't told us what he wants, Spider-Man."

"Generally, it's to do something illegal. Kinda why he's a super-villain. He's also not a fan of me not being dead yet. Which is a problem, since I like not being dead."

Steve smirked. The kid seemed to be adjusting somewhat, even if his place on the team wasn't by any means solid. Tony liked it too, and he seemed to regard Peter in a slightly less dismissive light.

Widow spoke up from the background. "Does he use traps? Can he be easily distracted?"

"Not really to both of them. There's a first time for anything, but he really does sort of hate me for not dying."

The group chewed on the information, and he could see a common idea forming. Peter wasn't a tactician. He didn't do complicated ideas unless it was stuff he was gonna use or science, and most of his long-term planning was to the end of the week. That being said, it didn't take a lot for Peter to realize that he was going to be used as bait. Joy.

"What'd he steal this time, Director?"

"Funnily enough, Agent Barton, radioactive materials. A lot of dentists have been reporting thefts lately, and unless you know of some **other** jackass who's recently escaped from prison and knows enough to not fry himself with radiation poisoning, he's our guy."

That explained why Dr. Banner was still actually Dr. Banner.

"What's our game plan?"

Tony sounded casual, and as Peter looked from the genius in the Iron Man suit to Captain America to the rest of the outfitted members of the team, he wished he could be as relaxed pre-mission as they were. He never really went in with a plan, or any sort of idea as to what he was facing if he hadn't already been attacked earlier -- it was probably why he got so many little injuries (and a couple of the bigger ones, too).

"Spider-Man goes in, grabs Doc Ock's attention. Banner, Stark, you guys get the radioactive stuff, we've got it located on a map that Stark should have. Stark, I want you covering Banner and transporting the material once it's safe. Romanoff, I want you in the background -- find where the guy keeps his files, find out what you can. Barton, you watch her six, make sure she has the time to get what she needs."

"And where will you be, Rogers?"

"Watching Spider-Man in action, sir. Wanna see how he acts in combat for myself."

Tony grumbled. "You could have seen the YouTube clips like anyone else."

Tony Stark had seen the videos. Peter wasn't proud. It made sense that Tony Stark would look Spider-Man up, right?

Okay, he was sorta proud.

Fury cut into Peter's general feeling of awesomeness, and the teenager got the distinct impression that Fury would do that a lot.

"Everyone's got their moving orders. Unless you all want to see New York get nearly blown up **again**?"

Peter wondered exactly how black someone had to take their coffee in the morning to achieve _that_ level of sarcasm over communicators, but got into the Quinjet (that was what the Cap had called it, right) with the others, and got dropped off a couple blocks from where the lair was. He was the distraction, right? Time to be distracting.

Doc Ock still hadn't quite figured out how to find lairs that had decent impact-resistant glass in the windows, so when Peter burst in, the disgraced scientist was for some reason actually surprised. Peter eyed the sharp adamantium claw-like tips of the robotic arms, and fought back memories of being beaten so badly that he could barely move. He knew more now. He had ways of keeping himself from being hurt.

That was the theory, anyway.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter goes toe-to-toe with Doc Ock as Steve watches and the others try to figure out what's going on.

"Spider-Man!"

"That's my name, don't wear it out."

Doc Ock dropped what he was doing, and turned to face Peter. That gave Iron Man and Dr. Banner the opening they needed -- as Peter came to a rest on a nearby crate, they got to the hallway they'd need to get to where the radiation was marked on the map. Peter didn't know where Widow and Hawkeye were, and when he thought about it, he wasn't sure anyone did at any given time.

His mind drifted to the Heisenberg principle for a second, relating the super-spy and the archer to sub-atomic particles before he remembered that there was a mad scientist in front of him with a grudge, a bad haircut, and absolutely no sense of how to dress himself at all.

Seriously. Peter might have been a teenage guy, but he lived in _New York_ and took photos with a high-end camera. He'd been called to take pictures of a runway before, and while he didn't pretend to understand any of it, even he knew better.

"You won't disrupt my plans this time!"

"Oh yeah? What makes today so special?"

Doc Ock pressed a button on his relay board, and smoke came pouring out of the vents. "This!"

Well, that did certainly pose a problem. While Peter could still protect himself from being attacked with his spider-sense, he couldn't very well hit back if he couldn't see where he was supposed to be punching/kicking/swinging. The smoke was dense and hot, and then it rose... to the ceiling.

Doc Ock had forgotten third-grade physics in his quest to keep Spider-Man cornered.

He seemed to realize that right when Peter had. Peter couldn't stop laughing. Doc Ock was a brilliant man, and he'd done things with radiation lesser minds could only dream of, but even still...

Peter's laugh caused Doc Ock to launch a full attack against Peter, and Peter had to stop laughing long enough to swing away from where he'd been perched.

"That's priceless, man! That's like when the Mythbusters forgot to secure the air pressure cannon to prevent the Third Law from taking effect."

Doc Ock grumbled, and one of his mechanical arms took a swipe at the young Spider that was just a hair's breadth from actually making contact. Peter shot webbing into the joints of two of the arms, temporarily immobilizing them. Great. Doc Ock still had two more mechanical, and only one was needed to keep his body upright. That meant one more to worry about in the air.

"I'll take you out, Spider-Man!"

Peter acted bored as he swung away from the villain. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Get some new material. What's the plan of the month this time? Run out of babies to steal candy from?"

"That's none of your business!"

Peter frowned, and dodged a thrown crate. Since when did Doc Ock not monologue?

Iron Man's voice came through the comm set. "Uh, guys, we have a problem."

Widow's voice followed his. "Yeah, we do too."

Uh oh.

Cap's voice sounded measured. "Stark, you first. What do we got?"

"Unless the half-life on the material was severely misreported, only about 50% of what we should."

Aw crap.

"Widow?"

"Cap, I got a large amount of small cash in here without markers. It's already on the black market -- gone."

Double crap.

Peter continued dodging crates, and even managed to knock Ock off balance once.

"Stark, Banner, get the stuff that's left and get out. Romanov, Barton, find any clues you can as to where the material went. Computer, paper, I don't care -- there has to be a record of it somewhere. Spider-Man, keep him busy."

There wasn't really a way for Peter to respond to that, so he just dodged and tried to get in another kick. Ock broke through the webbing holding while Peter was in midair and swung an arm free to meet the young teen. Peter went flying into the wall, coughing and holding his side -- getting hit with adamantium made the wall feel nicer!

Peter was struggling to get to his feet as Doc Ock approached. There was a slight struggle, and then the other mechanical arm was free to be used against Peter. The teen tried to think fast as the mad scientist approached, but then there was the thunk of Cap's vibranium shield against the arms. Doc Ock stopped, confused as to where the projectile had come from. That gave Peter the opportunity to web Doc Ock in the face and he took it.

The mad Doctor was more than angry. His goggles meant Peter hadn't gotten any webbing in his eyes, but he still scrambled to clear his vision field.

"Where did that -- what the --"

Peter powered down Doc Ock's arms, and the Cap threw him a pair of SHIELD handcuffs that would more than hold the expert.

Iron Man touched down near Peter and Doc Ock. "What, did I miss all the fun? How'd Spider-Kid do?"

"Held up pretty well, but I'm gonna want to let Medical take a look at him anyway. He got thrown into a wall."

Medical? No. No, no, no, no, no -- definitely no.

"I can walk! See, I'm okay -- no issues here!"

Iron Man poked at Peter's ribs. Peter swatted the hands away until Iron Man finally found purchase where Peter was sore. The resulting 'Ow' and coughing spree had the Cap and Iron Man giving each other a look over Peter's head.

"Yeah, sure you're okay."

Peter ignored Iron Man's sarcasm, and the Cap decided to return back to the general mission.

"Where's Dr. Banner?"

"Overseeing SHIELD taking the glow rocks into custody until they can figure out what to do with it. How are Legolas and Widow doing?"

"Can it, Stark."

Hawkeye walked into the room, with Widow right next to him, She was holding a thumb drive up.

"We found this. It has his records on it. SHIELD's gonna tear his office apart much more thoroughly, but this guy was nuts. He wanted to poison New York through printing ink."

Iron Man scoffed. "The guy's got a full computer relay and he decides to poison everyone through ink? Wow. Okay then. What's that got to do with radioactive materials?"

Hawkeye shrugged. "Financing?"

Peter thought of the times he'd sold his pictures to the Bugle, and realized that the plan might have been a little dated, but it still could have been pretty effective if it'd gotten into a large newspaper. That was a lot of radioactive material out there, though, and Peter knew of at least a few guys who'd be stupid enough to try something with it.

As the group got back on the Quinjet, Peter rested against a chair, and let the super-healing that had come with the spider-bite do its job. Aww man. He still had Calculus homework when he got home.


	5. Chapter 5

As Peter leaned back, his breath slightly hitching about once a minute, he was being carefully observed by every other Avenger AND the thankfully-friendly AI that enabled one of the Avenger's heroics.

"Thrown into a wall? By adamantium? He sure doesn't act like it."

Steve agreed with Clint's assessment. It was clear through Peter's very basic fighting style that he was at very least an enhanced human, but Steve still didn't know how enhanced that was. Watching the fight had told Steve a lot that he did need to know -- the kid was _fast_ , and strong, and quick on his feet in a battle, which were all very good things to know about a person if you were going to be sending them into a fight. He had a decent ability to follow the orders he'd already been given. Steve might even venture to mark him as 'reliable'. It seemed that Fury had made a good tactical choice this time, even it morally smelled worse than a fish left three days under a hot sun.

Inside the world of the Iron Man helmet, JARVIS was relaying the medical scans he'd done on Peter to Tony. The kid had had two very nice, large bruises going for him both where the claw had hit him and where he'd hit the wall when he'd walked on the Quinjet. While the bruises were still there, they now covered an area that was at least 10% less than the original scans showed, and Tony would be running another scan in about 15 minutes to see if the pattern was holding. It seemed like the kid might have gotten at least somewhat lucky somewhere.

There were a lot of unanswered questions around the kid. Tony didn't like not knowing things.

Neither did Natasha, so she sent in a recommendation to run Spider-Man through the battery of tests that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents endured when they first signed on with the agency. It was time-consuming to the extreme, but since it seemed like the newest addition to the Avengers was smart enough and strong enough to keep himself alive in the field, it was important that they knew what they could task him with and what they couldn't. People died because of blanks in information.

Of course, people died anyway, but S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to minimize the senseless loss of life that accompanied fighting myths, magic, monsters, and madmen with metal limbs.

While the others watched Peter's physical state, Dr. Banner looked at the young teenager slightly differently. He saw tension in Peter's shoulders, even when relaxing, and the sort of pallor that came when a young body was both overworked and under-rested. The child was sprawled out in his seat in a mess of gangly limbs -- he hadn't yet come into his own through puberty yet. _He was really that young_.

And despite there being a limited amount of room to be in the Quinjet, Peter was sitting about as far from the group as he could. Bruce could sympathize with that, to a degree. He would have been sitting farther away himself, but once Tony had set his eyes on befriending Bruce, there'd been no two ways about it: Bruce simply became a solid member of the group.

It had been an odd turn of events for the former nuclear physicist.

Would something similar happen to Peter?

Bruce could tell the Captain had something of a soft spot for the teenager. He wanted Peter to do well in the group, wanted Peter to grow up and get stronger and prove himself to the group and to Fury. He also knew the others would be able to see it in the Cap as well.

Bruce had spent a lot of time coming to what he felt was a more realistic view of life while going through the underbrushes of the rainforest and the slums of Calcutta, though, and he knew that even with the Captain's support, Peter would face a lot of problems the group couldn't help him with. Not just normal problems -- super villains that had chips on their shoulders from being taken down by him personally, or formed because he didn't do something they wanted, or because he wasn't in the place they thought he should have been. The real cause didn't matter. Super villains seemed to form in spite of the heroes, not because of them.

It had already happened to Tony at Christmas time. It looked like it was happening to Peter with Doc Ock. 

15 was too damn young to have fully grown extremely intelligent men form grudges against you for not dying.

They touched down on the roof, and S.H.I.E.L.D. Med was there to take a look at Peter.

"Hey, I'm not -- wait, I gotta get home, stop --"

"Peter."

Steve fixed him with a calm, expectant stare, and all the power fell out of Peter's protests. He couldn't fight against the expectations of his childhood hero, and so he let the docs take a look at him.

"Cap, you're really gonna have to teach me how to do that sometime."

The rest of the group agreed with Clint's comment in some form or another. That stare worked _wonders_. The doctors led the kid off, and the team followed. They'd debrief when he was given a clean bill of health, Fury be damned. And Clint was still fully cursing the Director out in his mind. Of _course_ the kid got hurt on a mission where no one else did. And his first mission out, before he’d been given any sort of training at all. The kid might have been an active superhero, but good defensive techniques weren’t always instinctive. Some of them needed to be _taught_. 

15 minutes later, Peter was back with them (now with cool compresses to the areas that hadn't quite gotten repaired by his healing factor just yet), and Director Fury was telling them exactly what he thought of the situation.

"...we have THAT MUCH material missing?!? What the HELL were you thinking when you..."

Peter would have continued paying attention, but the sheer volume of Nick Fury's dressing down was starting to make his ears hurt, and he didn't really know the man too well yet. There was the vague sense of 'this guy could have me dead in a heartbeat' that was becoming increasingly present in his life, but he saw Captain America sitting there, taking it without too much in the way of comment, and he realized the Cap had checked out until Fury's rant was over. Tony Stark -- because he was Iron Man in the helmet, at least to Peter, and Tony Stark outside of it and the same rule applied to the rest of the heroes in his new 'team' -- was actively ignoring Fury. Dr. Banner was trying to look like he was paying attention. Black Widow and Hawkeye were a different case entirely in that the Black Widow appeared to be looking at Fury, but not really focusing on him, and Hawkeye was fiddling with an arrow.

"Get outta my sight. Dismissed."

Peter waited until Fury'd left before he got up. It wasn't too late yet, he could still make it home early --

"Hey kid, get over here for a bit."

He groaned at Tony's summons. Really? _Really?_

Couldn't he ever catch a break?


End file.
